Woman gives birth in Poland after being declared brain dead

A brain-dead Polish woman was kept alive for 55 days so that she could give birth, a hospital official said on Thursday, adding the premature baby showed no signs of serious complications.
"It's rare to successfully maintain a pregnancy for so long, that it is at such an early stage, at 17 or 18 weeks," said Barbara Krolak-Olejnik, head of the neonatal unit at the University Hospital in the southern city of Wroclaw.
The 41-year-old mother was rushed to hospital by ambulance late last year and deemed brain dead due to brain cancer.
"Her whole family wanted us to try to save the child," Krolak-Olejnik said, adding that the baby boy was born in January in the 26th week of pregnancy.

"It was a long 55-day battle. We doctors wanted the little man to grow as big as possible but there came a day when there was a real danger to his life, so we opted for delivery."
The baby was delivered by caesarean section and weighed just one kilogram (2.2 pounds) at birth, but is now up to three kilograms after three months of intensive care and has just left hospital showing "no complications".